On 17 December 2015, the Soundwave founder, music promoter AJ Maddah, announced that the 2016 Soundwave festival was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. This was announced two days after the announcement that 2016 would be the final Soundwave festival.

Contents

The Soundwave festival originated in Perth,[3] as a smaller festival known as Gravity Soundwave within the Gravity Games.[4] The Gravity Games were held in South Perth along the Swan River, being based mainly on water-based and action sports. The event was sponsored by Vodafone in its first year, with the company reportedly committing one million dollars to the event. Gravity Soundwave provided the music side of the festival, which took place at McCallum Park alongside the Swan River.[5]

In 2007 the festival expanded to include Sydney and Brisbane, and increased the number of bands performing. A number of the artists featured in the 2007 Festival had previously played at the Soundwave Festival in Perth, including Unwritten Law, MxPx and Parkway Drive.

The 2008 Soundwave festival was headlined by The Offspring, along with Incubus and Killswitch Engage and was expanded to include dates in Melbourne and Adelaide, increasing the number of dates from three to five. The expanded Festival featured five stages compared to three the previous year.

*A^ The Dillinger Escape Plan replaced Scars on Broadway*B^ Less Than Jake did not appear in Brisbane due to flight delays.*C^ Acts were made public in a third announcement and only appeared in Sydney.

This was the first time Limp Bizkit had toured Australia in eleven years. Their previous tour was the 2001 Big Day Out festival, which was marred by the death of 16-year-old Jessica Michalik during their performance at the Sydney show. Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst paid tribute to Michalik at each Soundwave date and openly criticised Big Day Out organisers.[20]

The festival also featured a reunited Coal Chamber, who played their first shows since 2003,[21] and also marked the final shows of emo group Thursday.[22]

Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo announced on Facebook that he was fired due to a dispute over money,[32] he was also replaced by Jon Dette, who was already filling in for Anthrax and has previously played in Slayer[31]

In addition, Shai Hulud vocalist Justin Kraus was hospitalised with chest pain immediately after playing a show in Trenton, New Jersey,[34] he was replaced by Mike Moynihan, who was previously their vocalist between 2009-2011[33]

Gallows guitarist Stephen Carter left the band in the days leading up to the festival, the band continued as a four-piece.[35]

There was also controversy regarding bands such as Pierce the Veil and The Amity Affliction having their sets cut short in Perth due to complaints from local residents - after this Maddah doubted the festival's future in Western Australia.

This festival featured 72 acts across nine stages (eight stages in Perth).

The lineup for the 2014 festival was first announced on 23 August 2013. The lineup containing 94 bands, featured Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold, Korn and Alice In Chains[48]

The Perth festival was relocated from Claremont Showground to Arena Joondalup, 25 km north of Perth, two weeks before the beginning of the festival due to Soundwave's ongoing conflict with the Claremont Council.[49] Following a similar situation at the Perth leg of Big Day Out in January of that year, which was also relocated from Claremont Showground to Arena Joondalup, AJ Maddah confirmed that 2014 would be the last Soundwave held in Perth,[50] where the festival originated.

*A^The Living End replaced Stone Temple Pilots, who withdrew from the lineup due to scheduling conflicts.[51]*B^Megadeth withdrew from the lineup due to an unspecified dispute with Soundwave promoters.[52]*C^Newsted withdrew from the lineup due to unspecified reasons.[53]*D^Filter replaced Sevendust, who withdrew from the lineup due to a dispute with Soundwave promoters over money.[54]*E^Desaparecidos withdrew from the lineup due to personal issues.[55]*F^Dir En Grey did not appear in Perth.[56]*G^Volbeat withdrew from the Adelaide and Perth shows due to a family emergency. Their timeslot was filled up by local acts.[57]*H^Whitechapel withdrew from the lineup due to the death of an immediate family member.[58]*I^Hardcore Superstar withdrew from the lineup due to a dispute with Soundwave promoters over their allocated timeslot.[53]

On 28 June 2014, Soundwave announced that it will become a two-day festival,[59] held over two consecutive weekends, with half the bands announced playing day one and the other half playing day two, criss-crossing between Adelaide and Melbourne, then Sydney and Brisbane. AJ Maddah stated on Twitter "Putting the line-up across [two] days enables us to minimise clashes; give bands longer sets, better staging, production [and] infrastructure. I am also hoping that this will give fans better value for money and a less stressful day."[59] AJ Maddah later confirmed that 2015 was the last Soundwave for Adelaide in the foreseeable future as it made a $300,000 loss in 2014, but with the $1,400,000 loss in 2015 due to lackluster ticket sales being to large to subsidise out of the other cities.[60]

On 20 March 2015, AJ Maddah stated that Soundwave 2016 would return to the one-day format and would be held in January instead of the usual late February/early March dates. He also later stated that the 2016 lineup would be announced via "drip-feeding" and would also be smaller in order to achieve longer set times for bands.

Bullet for My Valentine was announced as the first act of Soundwave 2016 via the band's social media accounts and the official Soundwave website on 14 August 2015, and over the next four months, Disturbed was announced as the headliner and 24 other bands were added for a total of 26 bands.

On 15 December 2015, Maddah tweeted that 2016 would be the final ever Soundwave, stating it was due to "stress and haters", and two days later he tweeted that the festival had been officially cancelled.[64]

Various problems contributed to its cancellation, including:

Poor ticket sales (Maddah once stated that 2016 would "sell out instantly", but around 20,000 tickets in total had been sold at the time of its cancellation)[citation needed]

The festival's advertised venues reportedly not being booked[citation needed]

Backlash from fans concerning the long length of time that it took for Maddah to announce the full lineup and also for including bands that were deemed unfit for a metal and rock festival (such as Public Enemy, The Prodigy, and the (at the time) lesser known groups Nothing But Thieves and Moose Blood).[citation needed]

Fans receiving the wrong tickets in the mail or not receiving them at all[citation needed]

*A^L7 withdrew from the lineup due to unspecified reasons.[66]*B^ On 14 December 2015, Bring Me the Horizon claimed on Twitter that they had not been officially confirmed to play at the festival despite being announced in September 2015.